The Lone Ranger
by The Nightly Ninja
Summary: When Big Hero 6 disbands a year after its formation, Hiro is not willing to accept it. This causes the hero some... problems. Still, he's not willing to stop, despite all the setbacks: he started this for Tadashi, and he won't stop until they're together again. rated for language and slight gore.
1. Chapter 1

Hiro started to tremble with rage because this entire situation was unacceptable. "Un-fucking- _believable_ …"

"Don't give us that crap, Hiro." Gogo snapped suddenly, down to the last straw, "we've spent the last year getting tossed around like rag dolls; we're officially college graduates now. We could barely make time for it before, but now? You want us to pass up these opportunity's that were handed to us _on silver platters_ —opportunity's that a lot of other students will _never_ get—to continue with this routine of getting the crap beaten out of us _every. Day_. Hm?"

The others didn't argue because they couldn't; none of them were willing to continue being superheroes, even Fred needed to pick up his family business after it was passed to him.

Even though they had been doing this for Tadashi, the friend that had begun to wander in and out of their memories, they were done. But Hiro wasn't. He wasn't because his brother's memory was still fresh on his mind, because Hiro could still help people for Tadashi.

So Hiro bitterly watched as his 'friends' packed and left. Wasabi was headed for Tokyo. Gogo and Fred were going to New York. Honey Lemon, with one desperate 'last hug,' was hauled onto the plane to San Francisco by one of her new colleagues.

The same night, the young Hamada was donning his armor like he had every night for the past year, as though his friends would come to the garage like they always had. Still, despite the minor set back that was their lack of appearance, Hiro continued through his patrol trying not to be unnerved by the lack of bickering in his comm.

Nearing 3 am, the 'Lone Ranger' decided to head home, knowing that was the most of the city he could patrol on foot. _What was that?_ It was the slightest flash of a scarlet parasol; sure sign of a Fujita. _And where there are Fujita's, there is always trouble._

Without hesitation, Hiro started to tail her down several back alleys and unused old roads. Until they were at an abandoned subway station, he had thought that she was oblivious to his prescience, but as soon as he rounded the last corner into the main terminal she attacked with three hidden companions.

During his beat down Hiro's consciousness came and went until it was gone for good. Instead of dying though, Hiro woke up in an apartment similar to his own above the café. Realizing that he had no idea where he was, Hiro tried to stand but suddenly found that a key component for this action was missing; his right leg. As soon he noticed his near fatal wound he also noticed that someone had treated it already. As he was inspecting his bandaged stump someone walked in and smiled at the hero, "Oh yes! You're up!" he laughed, bringing Hiro a plate of sushi, "how you feelin' bro-tato chip?"

Hiro, being clueless as to most of his current situation, decided to latch onto the question that he had been asking himself, "uh… I don't…uh, numb…?" he tried to respond.

"Eh, emotionally or physically?"

"…B-both?"

The other boy, who Hiro belatedly realized was strangely familiar, nodded, "yeah. My bro's a med student and, cause we're so far from any hospitals, he just fixed you up in the kitchen." Hiro noticed that the refrigerator and oven were splattered in blood as he mumbled a detached 'thank you' and the boy continued, "Yeah, don't worry about it; live in a rough part of town you know? We do stuff like this all the time. That's why you're on hospital grade drugs right now. Eat up." Hiro took a bite of the sushi he was offered as he inspected the boy sitting next to him. It was _probably_ the drugs that he had mentioned, but Hiro couldn't brush off the idea that this guy looked _just like him_. Aside from the white hair. _I am so high right now. This must be why Tadashi always told me to stay away from drugs._ He thought as he blacked out again.


	2. Chapter 2

Hiro spent the rest of the day waning in and out of consciousness, not one hundred percent sure when he was dreaming or awake. Sometimes he was at home with Tadashi, eating pastries in the café as the last of the customers filtered out. Other times he was eating leftovers with two strangers in a high-tech sushi bar in the red light district of San Fransokyo. Sometimes Tadashi was patching up his scraped knee. Others, a dark-haired stranger with a man-bun was inspecting the stump of his leg. Sometimes he was inventing with Tadashi. Others, he was watching the white-haired boy from before build something by himself at a small desk in the corner.

"You assembled that wrong." He called eventually, shrugging when the other teenager looked back at him, "those are magnetic bearing servos, right?"

"Yeah…"

"They're supposed to go the other way around."

"I know I'm _supposed_ to do it like that. I just wanna try it like this so that they'll be a little slower." Hiro couldn't fathom why he wanted them slower, but chose to simply watch as the boy tinkered with the miniscule piece of machinery, eventually adding it to something else that Hiro couldn't see. Then a tiny person walked across the desk and Hiro decided that he hated drugs, even if his lack-of-leg hadn't bothered him since the last dose. When Hiro voiced this opinion, his 'twin' laughed saying, "No, it's a miniature android. I'm way into robotics, but there aren't many outlets for that out here, aside from bot fighting. So, I stick to my scale models."

"I like robotics too. Maybe I can get a good word in to one of my professors at SFIT?"

The boy's head snapped around like a whip, "You go to _SFIT_? YOU WOULD DO THAT FOR _ME_?"

Hiro laughed, "Yeah, totally dude! You _saved my life_ , it's the least I could do!"

The guys face broke into an even bigger grin. "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU" he shouted, somehow materializing right in front of Hiro, wrapping his arms around the Hamada as he bounced up and down with joy.

"Okay, but I'm gonna need your name to do that." he said with a wince.

"You… oh my gosh. what kind of host _am I_. I'm Akiro Myamoto."

"Hiro Hamada." he said with a smile as they properly shook hands.

"Oh and this is my older brother Micko." Akiro added as said brother walked in, his shoulder length brown hair loose and his pants off. It was apparently pretty early in the morning because he was a dazed mess as he mumbled an 'Ohayō' and stumbled toward the blood splattered coffee maker. "Micko! Hiro said that he'll put in a good word for me at _SFIT_!"

"Hey that's-!…who?" he was considerably more awake as his brother shouted in his ear.

"Hiro! You, uh—him." He said, pointing.

As the Myamoto brothers got excited and talked about all the opportunity's, Hiro felt a pang in his chest as he watched them smiling and laughing. _I miss you nerd._ He missed being called a knucklehead and getting his hair ruffled as he was dragged home from the very district where these brothers lived. _Please be careful Micko. He couldn't live without you._ Hiro could tell he was getting too attached for having known them for no more than a day (most of which he spent unconscious) but he felt like he'd known them all his life as Micko helped him, a total stranger, into a pair of forearm crutches and helped him start walking without one of his legs. That was how they spent most of the day; doing physical therapy, chatting up about robotics and siblings, and eating weird types of sushi that Hiro had never even heard of. Though their huge akita barreling into his good leg made therapy hard for Hiro, his constant sloppy kisses made chatting hard too, and the fact that 'Choosy' loved sushi just as much as the boys, made eating just as difficult.

(break)

A few hours later the brothers helped Hiro into a cab and took him home to the café where they explained the situation to his tearful aunt.

"Hiro, baby, oh no no no no no! This wasn't- I'm so sorry honey, I'm so so sorry…" she sobbed as she hugged him tightly, glad that he was alive, especially if he was beaten as badly as his new friends said he was. They eventually got Baymax to help, and the robot essentially repeated Micko's original diagnosis as Akiro fangirled over Baymax himself.

"Patient has multiple fractured ribs, scattered bruising most frequent on his stomach and face, and one severed leg." As Micko talked to Baymax and Cass, Akiro helped Hiro to the garage where he was given a full tour and the offer to come and use equipment whenever he wanted.

"HIRO YOU'RE THE BEST!" the younger of the Myamoto's screamed tackling his new best friend into a hug, apologizing profusely as he was reminded of his fractured ribs and lack of balance.

After dinner and a little more practice with stairs, the Myamoto brothers left relenting to accept free coffee and pastries for all their help and promising that they'd come see Hiro in the morning.

Cass, like Hiro, had seen the resemblance and felt the closeness to the two boys that could have been her own _._ _ **Please**_ _be careful Micko. I don't think either of them could handle it if something happened to you._

 **A/N: Hey P.S. I love reviews so much, they make me feel really good and make me write faster.**


	3. Chapter 3

"Did you literally just say that you're a superhero." Micko deadpanned at Hiro, who, while expecting them be disbelieving, had not expected this response: Akiro was making bad puns and Micko flat out didn't believe him. Hiro wasn't sure if it was because of his age or his situation that made it so unbelievable but having his two best friends of two months not believe him _hurt_.

"I understand that—"

"you're a superHIRO—"

"I understand that it's a weird—"

"Oh it's the city's HIRO—"

" _I understand that it's a weird_ situation but it's true! My old friends and I became superheroes after my brother-" this time Hiro stalled on his own.

" _Your_ brother…?" Micko gently probed and Hiro could feel his tears prickling in the corners of his eyes. _Not here._ He couldn't cry in Choosy Sushi because despite its new 'second home' status, he couldn't cry. He couldn't cry because he had spent the past two months forcing his new friends to stop pitying him, to accept that his injury hadn't rendered him helpless.

"Hiro…" Akiro whispered as Hiro glanced at the spot next to him. It was their normal booth, it was the normal empty seat but it was supposed to be full. Tadashi should have been there to share cheesy advice with Micko. To trade 'my little brother…' stories while Akiro and Hiro stuck chopsticks up their noses. The tears started to fall and Hiro could tell that he was falling apart in public but now that he had thought of what his brother _could_ be doing, the only thing he could do was cry.

It seemed that Hiro blinked and suddenly he was in their apartment; a carbon copy of the one he had once shared with Tadashi. "What happened?" he asked eventually, his nose still plugged up from crying and the brothers uneasily glanced between one another.

"Ya had a breakdown in the bar." Akiro said bluntly as his brother elbowed him.

"Hiro, whatever's going on with you and your… brother. It's obviously bothering you. You can tell us if you want but, we won't pry." Micko offered kindly.

"No, you'll ask Aunt Cass." Hiro said, knowing that neither had ever mentioned Tadashi to either brother: Cass would've cried just as uncontrollably as Hiro had, which would definitely be a point interest.

"Yup—OW!"

"Whatever. There's nothing going on between us anyway: He's d-dead." Hiro hated the way his façade cracked at the word, but couldn't take it back, so he didn't bother trying as the brothers stared at him. Micko looked solemn while Akiro was lost in thought. _He's never considered losing Micko before._ "There was a fire at SFIT and the idiot ran inside to try to get to his _professor_." He all but spat.

"so… so he was older…"

"Tadashi was 19, yeah." Hiro answered as Akiro nodded absently, swallowing dryly as he did so. _He's NEVER considered this before._ It was strange seeing as they had lost their parents too but Hiro supposed the circumstances were different.

"You became a superhero because your big brother died." Micko mumbled, more like he was testing the words than saying them, but Hiro corrected him anyway.

"No. I Became a superhero because my big brother was _murdered_ and no one else was gonna do anything about it." Their eyes widened but they stayed silent, Micko andAkiro moving in for a hug. Not giving him pity or condolences, but understanding because they hypothetically knew what Hiro had been through. And that was more than enough. "and I'm gonna keep being a superhero because my brother wanted to help people, and I still can."

* * *

Hiro screamed in heartfelt agony, waking himself and the whole block instantly. Phantom pains were frequent enough, the psychological torture of having his nonexistent leg hacked off over and over, but that didn't make them anymore comfortable. Paired with his nightmares of burning alive and he was wondering if he should see a psychologist as he fumbled with the straps of his crutches. Giving up on them, Hiro dragged himself into the bathroom, still hyperventilating as he felt the cold sweat drench his body, replacing the burning embers from his nightmare. As he turned on the sink, he saw the faint beam of light that fell across the room as his aunt opened the door, probably armed with her trademark broom.

"Fine Aunt Cass." He called hoarsely, "Phantom pains." As though that could show her how much pain he was in. _Mental pain. That counts right?_ He wasn't sure what he was trying to count it as, but he really wanted it to count as he scrubbed his face of the imaginary burns and char and deeply breathed the air that finally lacked the ash and smoke it had retained since his nightmare.

He lost balance as he hobbled back to his bed and ended up on Tadashi's, only half aware that he had fallen at all, let alone where. So, armed only with the knowledge that he was on _A_ bed, he drifted back into his troubled sleep.

* * *

Hiro woke up to faint mumbling and as his eyes adjusted to the light he saw his two friends, apparently discussing the rice board that they seemed to have considered immobile. He sat up, belatedly noticing the dried tear tracks along his cheeks, and gave his friends a nod of acknowledgement as he asked for help back to his bed. They helped before starting to nicely ask about Tadashi, changing the topic each time Hiro got himself a little too upset, even helping Hiro close the divider when he couldn't handle seeing the uninhabited room any longer. As they went downstairs for breakfast, Hiro caught Micko linger by the board a little too long and could tell he was thinking: he was wondering if Akiro would end up like Hiro if he died, Wondering what Tadashi had been like, Wondering if Tadashi would've liked them. Pausing again on his way down the stairs, Micko looked closely at a photo he had overlooked countless times; it was of Hiro, probably two years or so before their meeting, with a 19-year-old, who was wearing the hat that had lain on the second bed. _Tadashi._

"So you're a superhero." He said like a common fact when he got to the kitchen table, "How did you plan to continue?"


	4. Chapter 4

"What do you mean you're not registering?" Micko had clearly been studying for his midterm exam, but apparently he could also eavesdrop across Hiro's garage at the same time.

"I mean that I won't officially register with the city. Keep off the radar for a little bit. That way, my friends won't hear anything for a little bit longer, and won't recognize anything until I've proven that I don't need them." Hiro called back as he finished tinkering with the prosthetic leg.

"Yo Kemosabe, I think it's ready." Akiro, the geek, had decided that Hiro was like The Lone Ranger: he lost his team and his brother and was now working outside the law with a secret identity.

"Cool lets try it Tonto." Hiro, the knucklehead, had decided to return the affection and call Akiro 'Tonto' after The Lone Ranger's sidekick/best friend.

"Uh-huh: NO." Micko, the mother hen, had decided that his little brothers where suicidal. "I've treated enough robotics-related injuries to know that you're just going to fuck yourselves up on the first try."

"And that's why we asked you to study in the garage while Baymax charges." Micko glowered at Akiro, who shrank back in fear of his brother's wrath, before turning to watch Hiro attach the first model of his prosthetic to the anchor that Micko had already stitched into his leg. Hiro took a few poorly balanced steps before getting the hang of it, to his friends' astonishment. He opened his mouth to say something but ended up unconscious when a _rocket booster_ misfired.

"Why did it _need_ a _rocket booster_ in the first place? It's a _leg_." As his brother rambled off various uses for rocket boosters, Micko banged his head on the table, hoping to join Hiro.

That was how the rest of the month was spent after that first week of set-up and that last day of victory; trial and error, medical treatment, arguments and bittersweet repetition. And that last day was of course they day they got it right; Just as Akiro started giving up, just as Micko started to doubt his plan, Hiro started walking with no problems. They were all overjoyed that Hiro could walk again, glad that he wasn't getting hurt anymore, glad that he didn't need his crutches anymore. Except that the owner laughed aloud when they voiced this.

"Guys I'm gonna keep using the crutches for everyday stuff; that way aunt Cass doesn't freak out about it and tell the team, they won't find out I got hurt at all—"

"Dude, seriously."

"What?"

Akiro rolled his eyes, "dude, you're gonna give up walking again for your _pride_?"

Hiro groaned, "and my secret identity! Guys listen, _please_ just let me do this: I have a plan! The crutches are just for a few more months. Then I'll have a not weaponized prosthetic that looks a lot more inconspicuous."

After passing an uneasy glance between one another the brothers sighed, "Alright Kemosabe. So now what?"

* * *

"eugh, _bot-fighting_ Hiro? _Bot-fighting_? I hate bot-fighting." Akiro grumbled as they made their way to their first mission: break-up a bot fight, find Yama, and turn as many as they could over to the police.

"Really? I used to love Bot-fighting, the thrills, the cheering, the money… my brother hated it though, so I stopped. Eventually. Besides, we're not going to be competing or anything, we're _breaking it up_. I thought you'd be happy about it." Hiro really couldn't fathom what Akiro was upset about: they had gotten a clean lead on their _first patrol_ , so they didn't have to go hunting for it. They were going to break up a bot-fight, which he hated. It was barely 1 in the morning, so it was nice and early. The only thing Hiro could see him having a problem with was the undercover part, which was necessary to find out as much information about the next bot fight as possible.

As they rounded the last corner Hiro found a new problem: the guards. It was pretty normal for bot fights to have guards, but those were fujitas whereas these men were huge and bulky, wearing some kind of high-tech, carbon fiber armor very blatantly based off of Big Hero 6. Hiro wasn't sure who they were, but he asked as soon as he got past them. "New security measures." The disgusting man laughed nasally, "ev'n if the police come now, all the officers'll be dead 'fore we have'ta make a break for it."

"Sick." Hiro said, keeping his cover while feeling sick himself, "where'd Yama get 'em?"

"Dunno, but they're top quality; take orders real good. Not like them Fujitas."

"What did Yama do with the Fujitas?"

"They all bin blacklisted since he got these guys. Can't get work nowhere. 'n ev'n better; these boy's like hustlers just 's much 's Yama does." Hiro nodded in thanks as he and Akiro climbed a fire escape and sat down to 'watch the fight' from above. They sat through a couple, gesturing at the ring as they strategized in Japanese, pretending to bet every once in a while.

" _What are you talking about, 'call it off'?"_ Akiro argued _, " We came all this way, why not—"_

 _"You heard what he said; 'dead before they even have to run'. Tonight, lets just leave a tip for the police, and do a little training so that_ _ **we**_ _have a chance against these guys. I have a hunch that we'll be seeing more of them"_

 _"But the plan—"_

 _"Forget the plan, most of my plans never work anyway. Superhero rule number 1:_ _ **prevent casualties**_ _. Right now, this bot fight is unimportant. Illegal, but unimportant."_

The new super Heroes bade the fighters and spectators goodnight after a few more fights and continued with their patrol, making more rookie mistakes that Hiro thought possible. _At least we didn't mess up with the bot fight._

* * *

(time skip: one month)

"This is a lot more boring than I thought it would be." Tonto groaned as he sat next to Hiro on the roof of a tall building.

"What did you think I meant when I said we'd be doing a 'stake-out'?" Hiro asked, still not taking his eyes off of the grand building across the road.

"Well, my original assumption was that there would be _steak_ , so-"

"Tonto! We're moving!" both boys shot to their feet and chased their targets car as he drove off, bounding across the San Fransokyo skyline with long powerful strides. It was a sleek black SUV that managed to slip their field of vision only twice thanks to extensive practice over the last few weeks. They followed it to the other side of the city, glad when it finally stopped and gave them a chance to catch their breath, though they only had a moment before Yama clambered out of the back seat and into the tall, inconspicuous office building before them, flanked by two guards who seemed to be forcing him in rather than following.

"Looks like Yama's new buddies found some new employment." Akiro chuckled, low and nervous, both boys just a _little_ scared for the bot-fighter's well-being.

"Well, you wanted excitement, Tonto; you go first."


	5. Chapter 5

On the inside, the building was a labyrinth that was constantly shifting and changing, and crawling with monstrous beasts that could permanently stop their hearts in half a beat.

It made the teenagers uneasy, but eventually finding Yama made them nauseous; The large conference room that their air duct looked down on was a legitimate slaughterhouse, The significant difference being that the only corpses they could see were those of decayed, mangled middle-aged men, whom Yama had joined only moments before their arrival. Akiro began shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"K-Kemosabe…?" he whimpered with the same unsteadiness, and Hiro took pity; he himself wasn't mentally equipped to see _this many_ corpses, though he had seen a few, unlike his innocent friend. Hiro's hand reached back and rested around the hilt of his new katana _._ Noting the presence of bot fighters and businessmen and inventors and journalists, Hiro felt himself start to shake a bit as he noticed the variety of the bodies on the floor.

 _No one… no one is safe, these "people" are attacking everyone… we're not ready for this and it's happening right—_

Hiro and Akiro's eyes went even wider as they saw who they assumed to be in charge; a man, significantly smaller than the rest, in a getup similar to Yokai, though slightly more professional in his 3-piece-suit. Hiro definitely didn't like that relation, though despite his blind rage he felt the panic and fear of a 15-year-old surge within him when the dark figure locked eyes with him and mutely pointed, prompting his guards to inspect, and the two masked teens to panic.

Knowing that they couldn't escape the way they came, The Lone Ranger and Tonto kicked the grate into the faces of the hulking men that threated to attack, before bolting down the hall into 4 other, seemingly bigger guards. Taking a few steps back, both boys dropped into fighting stances before bolting in the other direction and returning into their cramped sanctuary in the ceiling vents, though both knew they had a problem; they'd only managed come in after kicking down the door to the roof, because there weren't any exterior vents. Meaning that if they wanted to leave (they reallyreallyreally wanted to go home and hug their older brother and maaaybe cry a little bit.) they would have to go out into the maze, now swarming with alerted guards.

As they crawled though the vent, Hiro noted a _new_ problem: gas. Not the funny kind either, it was the chemical kind that knocked you out if you breathed it in too much. Recognizing that it was a really big problem that would only give them roughly 20 seconds to find a solution, Hiro rapidly tore away a piece of his shirt and tied it around his woozy friend's nose and mouth, knowing he did a mediocre job at best as he started on his own.

They eventually popped out on the floor below the top, drugged into exhaustion and delirium; it was only the look of the larger men that reminded them that they had to leave and drove them to the roof, which was missing a particular zip-line.

Though everything had been hazy since the gas was released, Hiro couldn't remember _anything_ after he recognized the newest problem with their escape; not how they got off the roof, not how they got home, and not how his sword had earned it's lovely new color.

That last one was especially concerning because Hiro knew what he could have done, knew that the thick red liquid coating the blade could be the blood of a dead man, or one that was nursing the equivalent of a paper cut. The amount was frightening as it suggested the former, though Hiro refused to believe that after everything that had happened to him, he had killed a man. Beside him, Akiro slept on, oblivious to his friend's inner conflict.

He _wouldn't_ have killed someone.

Would he?

* * *

 **A/N: so yeah, sorry it's been awhile, sorry it's short, sorry if it makes no sense. :/**


End file.
